diff --git a/Objects/unicodeobject.c b/Objects/unicodeobject.c
index ae2dbf5..af05f4c 100644
--- a/Objects/unicodeobject.c
+++ b/Objects/unicodeobject.c
@@ -631,6 +631,14 @@
                      how_many, to_start, PyUnicode_GET_LENGTH(to));
         return -1;
     }
+    if (how_many == 0)
+        return 0;
+
+    if (Py_REFCNT(to) != 1) {
+        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError,
+                        "Cannot modify a string having more than 1 reference");
+        return -1;
+    }
 
     from_kind = PyUnicode_KIND(from);
     to_kind = PyUnicode_KIND(to);